Of Quirks and Cages
by Hattersglasschild
Summary: Circus AU: With quirks being deemed dangerous and misunderstood, the Circus Act is passed, imprisoning the quirked ones into Circus camps where they are away from society and forced to preform for peoples enjoyment. When Izuku Midoriya visits a Circus, he becomes enamored with the quirked ones, especially the mysterious fire eater with the red and white hair.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So this has probably been done a billion times but I, myself, have never written a circus AU before and this idea came to me last night while I was listening to The Greatest Showman Soundtrack, so even if there are other My Hero Academia Circus AUs, this is my take on it. Let me know what you think.**

**Also, note, some of Class 1-A, like Iida, will be Quirkless in this AU.**

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"Oh, come on Izuku," Ink Midoriya said, lightly pulling her son's wrist toward the entrance, "Aren't you excited? Our first circus..." The short, green haired woman's eyes glittered in awe and they weren't even inside yet. Her son, Izuku Midoriya, didn't share her sentiment. He felt bad for these people but knew it was best not to express as much.

When the Circus Act was first passed, the act that condemned those with quirks to Circus Camps such as this one, those who were brave enough to protest were quickly and permanently silenced. Some were paid to keep quiet; some were imprisoned and others were killed. When the act passed, Izuku had been glad he had been born quirkless but now, standing beneath the big red and yellow sign that read All for One's Circus of Quirks, his stomach churned and he felt guilty for being on the other side of the bars.

"Sure mom," Izuku responded, trying his hardest to sound enthusiastic, "I'm just not feeling so well. Maybe we could come back a different day?" He tried to smile but Inko pouted and took both of her son's hands.

"But it's the grand opening! Are you sure that you're not just feeling excited nerves?" Izuku knew how much this meant to his mother and coming back a different day wouldn't make what he was feeling go away so he swallowed the rising bile in his throat and squeezed her hands.

"You're right. Let's go."

The line to get in was growing longer and longer by the minute but they'd gotten here earlier than most so they were toward the front. Into politely handed the sleepy looking ticket taker their tickets. He ripped them in half and handed them both back a stub which Izuku pocketed.

"The show doesn't start for another twenty minutes," Inko said as she took in her surroundings with glee. There were several different tents around the white and red stripped big top. Merchants with carts were selling balloons, trinkets, food, souvenirs... anything you could think of really. There were people in red jackets everywhere. The personnel in the jackets, he knew, were the handlers; those without quirks paid to watch over those with. It was easy to pinpoint the quirked ones because they had heavy metal collars around their necks. When the red light was lit on the collar, their quirks were being suppressed and they couldn't use them. The handlers held the remotes and were constantly in control off when the quirked ones could use their quirks. The collars were made by an American inventor named Melissa Sheild.

"Well, why don't you go find us seats?" Izuku suggested, "I'm going to run to the bathroom before it starts." Inko threw her arms around her son, squeezing tight

"Okay but hurry. I don't want you to miss a thing!"

On his way to the bathroom, Izuku heard his name being called from someone in the crowd behind him. He turned around just in time to see Tenya Iida making his way toward him.

"An, Midoriya, you made it!" he exclaimed, placing a strong hand on his shoulder. Izuku's face went completely pale. He knew he'd see people he knew here and Iida had been in his graduating class, the two actually really good friends but he hadn't expected to see him in a red jacket. Behind him, a girl in a ruffled pink skirt and tight white blouse hung her head, her chestnut hair obscuring her face. The red light on her collar wasn't lit which was odd but Izuku just figured maybe she wasn't a threat.

"I wouldn't miss it," Izuku lied, shifting uncomfortably, "I didn't know you worked here."

"I applied months ago to be a merchant but they deemed me fitting to be a handler so here we are!" he said with pride, "This is Uravity, my charge. You'll see her in the upcoming show. Greet Izuku, Uravity," Iida said in a harsh tone, one Izuku had never heard him use before. The girl lifted her head with a forced smile and waved.

"Wonderful to meet you, Izuku. Do stay for the show." Seemingly pleased with this, Iida turned his attention back to his friend.

"I must finish escorting her to the big top, but I'll catch up with you after the show. Do enjoy yourself Midoriya!"

The whole world started spinning then and Izuku began to stumble, his vision blurry as he tried to find his way to the bathroom. Maybe if he splashed some water on his face, he would snap out of it. It was no surprise when he bumped into someone full force and fell backward onto the pavement. He looked up with wild eyes, finding that the boy he'd collided with looked to be around his age, his hair a perfect split between red and white. One of his eyes was a deep brown, the other a striking blue, the blue eye was framed with a scar. He was beautiful none the less.

"I-I'm sorry!" Izuku stammered, his face bright red. The boy wordlessly extended his hand to Izuku and helped him up.

"You have no reason to be sorry," the red jacket beside him said, hitting a button on the remote that made the boy jerk in pain, "Todoroki here should have been paying attention." Todoroki gritted his teeth as his handler pressed the button again.

"My apologies, sir," he struggled to get out and bowed his head... Midoriya's heart shattered and he had to blink back tears.

"It's fine, really," he said softly, trying to reassure Todoroki; trying to soothe him somehow.

"I'm just a bit disoriented. This place is so big. Which way to the show?" The handler gave him simple directions, Midoriya's eyes on Todoroki the whole time. He looked back over his shoulder one final time and their eyes met for the second time before Izuku made his way toward the big top to find his mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Izuku slid into his seat next to his mother, feeling worse than he had earlier, yet the faintest ghost of a smile remained on his lips. Not just to appease his mother, either. He couldn't get Todorki's face out of his mind. He secretly hoped he'd see him in the show, but his stomach lurched at the idea of what this show had to offer.

"Sorry I took so long," he told his mother, "I ran into an old friend..." It wasn't a total lie so he didn't feel so bad about withholding the full truth. Inko smiled, patting her son's arm.

"Would you like some popcorn?" she asked, extending the tub she was holding toward him, "We could get cotton candy if you'd like. I know how much you love cotton candy!"

"I'm okay mom," he assured her just as the lights began to dim. All the hairs on Izuku's body stood up and he gulped.

"Here we go," he whispered, mainly for himself. This was going to take a lot of willpower.

A single spotlight illuminated the center of the middle ring and a mysterious blue haired individual stood proudly with his arms outstretched as there was a thunderous round of applause from the crowd. He had an array of paper Mache hands clinging to his arms, shoulders, legs and even on hiding the majority of his face, yet his voice could be heard clearly as ever over the loud speakers.

"Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls of all ages, welcome to One for All's Circus of Quirks! Who's excited to be here?" More applause. Midoriya sunk further down in his seat.

"You lovely people will be some of the very first to witness these freaks of nature at work. While they may appear dangerous, I want you to know we are keeping very good control over them and they are being very compliant pieces in our little game. I'm your ringmaster, Tomura Shigaraki, now let's have some fun!" Music began to flourish as two additional lights beamed down on each other side of Tomura, revealing two raised pedestals. A short chubby male stood on none, a tall, lengthy male on the other, both in full clown makeup. The shorter boy began to pull the balls off the top of his head one by one, tossing three to the blonde at his right. They both began to juggle; the taller one rather terribly at that.

"Meet Grape Juice and Chargebolt, our resident clowns. Grape Juice can pull sticky balls from his head that stick to just about anything." The shorter of the two stopped juggling and pulled another orb from his head ad nailed the other one in the face with it. The taller one, Chargebolt, simply removed it and added it to his juggling balls.

"It's rather useless actually," Tomura continued with a shrug, "Chargebolt has an electricity-based quirk." On cue, Chargebolt threw all our sticky balls into the air and gave them and electrical charge. When gravity began to pull them down, two hit him and the others hit Grape Juice, shocking them as the obnoxiously fell over. When they stood again, they continued juggling as a gate opened up to the left and a boy with an almost cone shaped head came in riding a tiger. The tiger roared and growled at all the people as the boy pet its head. Tomura had moved from the middle ring to the far left to put some distance between he and the animal.

"This is Anima. He can clearly understand all animal languages and can use a fair amount of persuasion to bend their minds to his will. Observe."

The boy hopped off the tiger's back, looking straight into its eyes. He raised his hand and the tiger stood on its back legs. He rotated his hand in a small circle and the tiger spun. He also had the tiger jump through various sized hoops and fetch before it was on to the next set of performers.

Their names were Pinky and Tsukuyomi and their act was trapeze. Pinky's quirk was acid based so when she melted the bar and began seemingly falling to her death, Tsukuyomi used his quirk Dark Shadow to swoop in and catch her.

After they performed, Creati wowed the audience with her creation quirk. Handcuffed and lowered into a tank of water, she was able to escape by creating a snorkel mask with oxygen and a skeleton key. The whole thing took about three minutes but the crowd went nuts.

Once everything was cleared out, Iida brought out Uravity who climbed a rather tall ladder to a tightrope which she began to ease her way across. A ring was slowly lowered from the ceiling a small ways away from the tightrope and Izuku would have missed it had it not been for a familiar tint of red he saw in his peripheral. Hanging from the hoop was Todoroki. The metal began to catch fire all the way around as he dropped onto a tall pedestal.

"Ah, yes," Tomura began, "Our resident fire starter, Todoroki. Half of his body is so hot it can set anything ablaze while the other half is so cold it can cause anything to freeze, both being done at his will."

Then, Uravity leaped into the air, touched her fingers together and began to float, doing flips in the air right through the hoop. Todoroki then made a huge slope of ice that Uravity used as a side to made it back to the pedestal he stood on. Both of them grabbed on end of the ring and were pulled back into the rafters but Izuku continued to stare after them long after they were gone.

Tomura was making one final speech but Izuku was too awed and stunned to be paying attention to the strange man. All of these people... they were extraordinary. They could do amazing things. Did he feel they could be dangerous? Absolutely but none of the had made a single move to harm the innocent, supervised or not. He had to do something to help these people...he had to at least try and when the lights came back up, they came up on a brand new Izuku Midoriya.


	3. Chapter 3

The main show was over now and the next one didn't start for another half hour but the Circus Camp was HUGE. There were other activities to do besides wait around so Izuku decided to explore. Ino had quite enough excitement for one day and decided it was best to head home. They didn't live far so Izuku could walk home with no issue.

As he walked down the colorful brick path he was surrounded by both entertainers and their handlers. His unease had subsided a bit, replaced by wonder, determination and hope. A little ways down, there was a medium size tent with the flap closed. Above it, on a wooden sign was the word Sideshow written in blue. A shoddy man with partially purple skin stood outside of it, collecting money from those going inside. Hesitantly, Izuku approached.

"Um, excuse me, how much?" he asked, getting a real bad vibe from this area. Still, he needed all the intel he could get from this place so he'd have to brave this one. The man chuckled and held up five fingers.

"But are you sure you have the guts to face our little side show? This shit aint for the faint of heart, kid. We got some class A freaks in here."

"I can manage," Midoriya mumbled, not sure if his pride was wounded or he was upset the quirked ones kept being verbally assaulted by people who looked more like freaks than they did. He slipped the man the money and ducked inside.

The lighting inside the side show tent was low and ominous, the walls lined with cages. As far as he could tell they were all empty, but they gave him the creeps and hurried past them, trying not to look.

There was a group of people huddled in front of a display when he rounded a corner and he hung back to watch for a moment. The sign read The Twins and the two boys handcuffed to the wall did look like they could be brothers. One had bright red, spiked hair while the other had silver. They both looked weakened and a bit bloody.

"Their quirks harden their bodies so when you hit them, they're protected," the handler was explaining. Midoriya's heart sank. These two looked like they were in pain which meant this was exhausting their quirks which he knew has limits.

"Who wants to step up and give it a shot?" the handler asked and nearly every hand in the group went up. Unable to watch, Izuku moved on.

Further down, a group of younger girls were counting how many arms a particular quirked one had. The sign above him read Strong Man. He held weights in each of his six hands that he was struggling to hold up. He ended up dropping one and had to create a seventh hand just to catch up. The group of girls cheered but the handler punished him anyway with a shock from the remote.

Most of these side show acts were similar in the fact that the quirked ones were exhausted to the point they could no longer preform their required tasks and they were punished for it. Izuku moved along quickly until he reached the end. The last exhibit before the exit was another cage, only this one wasn't empty like the others had been. No, this one had someone inside. Slowly, Izuku approached. He was the only one in this area, everyone else still finding entertainment in the other acts.

The quirked one inside the cage was chained to the wall with a long heavy chain. He was able to move around but he sat in the middle of the cell with his head lowered. He was groaning lowly but out of pain or sedation, Izuku couldn't tell. The red light on his collar glowed brightly, illuminating the surroundings in an eerie light.

"Um... hello?" Izuku asked softly, "Are you okay?" The boy groaned again, trying to raise his head but finding it difficult.

"D-Deku..." he rasped out, shocking Izuku. Only one person in his life had ever called him that or even knew him by that name.

"Kacchan?" he asked in confusion and when the spikey haired blond in the cage lifted his head and red eyes met Izuku's green ones, he knew, even if he hadn't seen him in years. Instant tears flooded his eyes.

"Kacchan!" he sobbed, gripping the bars of the cage. The blond was bruised, battered and bloody. He could barely keep his eyes open. When Izuku thought of Kacchan, he thought of the strong, lively, foul mouthed individual he'd grown up with. Looking at him now, all of the spark had faded out of his eyes and he looked almost dead.

"D-Deku," he moaned again, "Get o-out of here you n-nerd."

"No!" he cried even harder than before; his knuckles pure white from griping so hard. He knew he'd see people he knew here... but not like this.

"I can't leave you like this!"

"I said go!" Kacchan boomed, chilling Izuku to the bone. All of the wonder had faded from Deku's eyes and he was sure nothing in the world could bring it back.

"I'll be back for you, Kacchan," he vowed through his snotty nose and fresh wave of tears but the blond had already lowered his head again and went back to his low moaning, so Izuku ran from the tent. He ran until he was at the circus entrance before keeling over and throwing up.


	4. Chapter 4

Kirishima's knees hit the cement floor as he was roughly shoved inside the cell by his handler. There weren't too many quirked ones in the circus since they were still all being gathered so, for now, it was only two to a cell. Kiri was bruised to hell and back from being chained to the wall all day with Tetsutetsu. His abdomen looked even worse from being punched all night after his quirk had run out. He wanted to be numb to it; wanted to take it in stride but his spirit was broken. He slunk down the wall and pulled his knees to his chest, sobbing into them. This was just day one. Sure, they'd been subjected to this for months in preparation for the big opening but this was worse than anything his mind had conjured up.

He tried to keep his cries quiet so he didn't bother his cell mate who he knew needed to heal. In fact, he felt guilty for not tending to his wounds like he did every night while he was too sedated to do it himself. He heard chains rattle to his right and an almost delirious groan right after.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he cried, yet didn't move. He was trying to find the energy when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He couldn't help but jump and he looked up.

"Bakugo, go lay down," he whimpered, trying to compose himself, "I said I was coming." Bakugo dropped to his knees in front of Kirishima, cupping his face gently as he swiped his thumbs against his falling tears. It was actually a relief to Kiri to see he'd gotten some of his strength back. Bakugo was a favorite for the handlers to punish because he was always fighting back so hard. It was that fighting spirit that drew him to Kirishima.

"Where is that smile?" Bakugo asked weakly, swinging his body around so he was sitting upright next to Kirishima on the ground.

"I can't," Kirishima told him, turning his face away, "Why smile at a time like this? I'm too weak for this..." Bakugo turned his face back toward him, pulling his head down so it was on his shoulder. He began to stroke his hair.

"What, are you fucking stupid? You persevered today. While I was sitting on my ass, you made it through a whole shift of torture. You're allowed to cry about it. You're not weak. You're stupidly strong. Day after day they tear at you and you still come in here with that goofy ass smile on your face and take care of me like it's your fucking job when it's not. The next time you feel like insulting yourself, remember that." Kirishima beamed at the words despite everything that had happened that day.

"There it is," Bakugo cooed. He was only like this when they were alone. He was a firecracker any other time but Kiri didn't mind.

"Don't you ever lose that smile. Now come to bed. You need to heal." Kirishima met Bakugo's eyes and began chewing his lip.

"Hey, Bakugo? I know you said last time was the last time but..."

"Fine," he agreed, "But make it quick and don't ask again." Kiri leaned in and pressed their lips together briefly. He was trembling with nerves so it was sloppier than he'd intended but all of his troubles melted away in that instant. His eyes fell closed, even though he was sure Bakugo kept his open. It didn't bother him too much. He was sure Bakugo was aware of his feelings for him by this point and Kirishima knew he only put up with them because he had to.

The first time had been three months ago. They'd been cell mates from the beginning and often passed the time by telling stories of their past lives... their lives before this. Kirishima had been talking about his family and had gotten choked up and Bakugo kissed him to 'shut him up'. The next time had been a few weeks later when Bakugo had a particularly bad day. Kiri had already been in the cell when Bakugo had been brought back. Bakugo dropped onto the ground next to him, roughly grabbed his face and kissed him hard. It hadn't stopped there either. The clothes started coming off pretty quickly. Bakugo wasn't gentle that night, or any night after that but Kirishima didn't mind. He knew it was all out of frustration; a way to cope instead of out of love which he wouldn't lie, bothered him but he would take whatever affection he could get from Bakugo. He loved him. He knew that. Bakugo knew that and that was enough for him.

"Now, come to bed," the blond demanded and this time, Kiri listened.

Across town, when everyone else was settling in for the night, Izuku was wide awake. He'd been typing away on his laptop for hours, jotting down notes in a small notebook. The first thing he looked up was the Circus Act itself. He'd discovered it had been proposed by a man who called himself One For All. One For All was a mysterious man who hid his face with a mask but despite nobody knowing his true identity, he had quite the following. Deku had watched some of his speeches online and they were filled with misinformation and anti-quirk hate speech. The speeches were meant to strike fear into the hearts of the quirkless. Apparently, it had worked too because just seven months before, The Circus Act had taken effect. The Act stated that anyone with an unnatural ability would be relocated to Circus Camps across Japan where they would be required to work or entertain without monetary gains until a better solution could be devised.

Research on the Circus Act lead to a bunch of articles written by journalist Shouta Aizawa opposing the Act. They pointed out obvious flaws and lack of humanity it displayed and gave useful information about quirks themselves. They were pretty well written. Izuku had printed a few of them out, including one where Aizawa had interviewed politician Toshinori Yagi whose followers called him All Might. All Might was very outspoken on his opposition of the Circus Act. His speeches were so eloquent and called for peace, change and equality. In him, Izuku saw a cause he wanted to fight for. As it turned out, All Might was holding a rally in a few days and Izuku knew he had to be there. He would present All Might with all the inside intel he had gathered to use against All For One and his circus... Intel he was going to gather tonight. He was going back out there... Even if he had to sneak in.

"For Todorki," he whispered as he shoved essentials into his backpack, then out the window he went.


End file.
